“The poems in this captivating collection weave beauty with violence, the personal with the historic as they recount the harrowing experiences of the two hundred thousand female victims of rape and torture at the hands of the Pakistani army during the 1971 Liberation War. As the child of Bangladeshi immigrants, the poet in turn explores her own losses, as well as the complexities of bearing witness to the atrocities these war heroines endured.”

Episode 8 Guests

Laboni Islam is a poet and arts educator. Her poetry has appeared in Canthius, echolocation, FreeFall, (parenthetical), and The Unpublished City. She teaches at the Art Gallery of Ontario and Aga Khan Museum, animating the gap between art and young audiences. Born in Canada to Bangladeshi parents, she lives in Toronto.

Sanchari Sur is a feminist/anti-racist/sex-positive/genderqueer Canadian who was born in Calcutta, India. Her work has been published in Jaggery, The Feminist Wire, Matrix Magazine, Toronto Lit Up’s The Unpublished City anthology (BookThug, 2017), and Arc Poetry Magazine. She is a PhD candidate in English at Wilfrid Laurier University, the curator/host/co-founder of Balderdash Reading Series, and blogs at http://sursanchari.wordpress.com.

Catriona Wright is a writer, editor, and teacher. She is the author of Table Manners (Véhicule Press). Her poems have appeared in Prism International, Prairie Fire, Rusty Toque, Lemon Hound, The Best Canadian Poetry 2015, and elsewhere. In 2014, she won Matrix Magazine‘s LitPop Award. She is the poetry editor for The Puritanand a co-founder of Desert Pets Press, a chapbook press.

Kate Sutherland, On the Line, Host and ProducerKate Sutherland is the author of two books of short fiction, and one collection of poems: Summer Reading (winner of a Saskatchewan Book Award for Best First Book), All In Together Girls, and How to Draw a Rhinoceros. Her work has also appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies including Best Canadian Poetry 2016. She lives in Toronto.

“Whereas confronts the coercive language of the United States government in its responses, treaties, and apologies to Native American peoples and tribes, and reflects that language in its officiousness and duplicity back on its perpetrators. Through a virtuosic array of short lyrics, prose poems, longer narrative sequences, resolutions, and disclaimers, Layli Long Soldier has created a brilliantly innovative text to examine histories, landscapes, her own writing, and her predicament inside national affiliations. ‘I am,’ she writes, ‘a citizen of the United States and an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, meaning I am a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation—and in this dual citizenship I must work, I must eat, I must art, I must mother, I must friend, I must listen, I must observe, constantly I must live.’ This strident, plaintive book introduces a major new voice in contemporary literature.”

Episode 7 Guests

Jordan Abel is a Nisga'a writer from BC. Currently, he is pursuing a PhD at Simon Fraser University where his research concentrates on the intersection between Digital Humanities and Indigenous Literary Studies. Abel’s creative work has recently been anthologized in Best Canadian Poetry (Tightrope), The Land We Are: Artists and Writers Unsettle the Politics of Reconciliation (Arbiter Ring), and The New Concrete: Visual Poetry in the 21st Century (Hayword). Abel is the author of The Place of Scraps (winner of the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize), Un/inhabited, and Injun (winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize).

Sonnet L’Abbé is the author of two poetry collections, A Strange Relief and Killarnoe, and edited Best Canadian Poetry2014. She teaches creative writing at Vancouver Island University. Her next collection, Sonnet’s Shakespeare, will be published in 2018 by McClelland and Stewart.

Shannon Maguire is a poet, editor, and an Assistant Professor (LTA) in the Department of English at the University of Calgary. She is the author of two full-length collections of poetry: fur(l) parachute (BookThug 2013)—shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry—and Myrmurs: An Exploded Sestina (BookThug 2015). Her poetry has also been shortlisted for the bpNichol Chapbook Award and the Manitoba Magazine Award for Best Suite of Poems. Shannon edited and wrote the critical introduction to Planetary Noise: Selected Poetry of Erin Moure (Wesleyan University Press 2017). With Lesley Belleau, she is the guest co-editor of a special issue of Contemporary Verse 2 on Northern Ontarian Innovative and Indigenous Poetics (Winter 2017). Her third collection of poetry, Zip’s File: A Romance of Silence is forthcoming from BookThug in spring 2018.

Kate Sutherland, On the Line, Host and ProducerKate Sutherland is the author of two books of short fiction, and one collection of poems: Summer Reading (winner of a Saskatchewan Book Award for Best First Book), All In Together Girls, and How to Draw a Rhinoceros. Her work has also appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies including Best Canadian Poetry 2016. She lives in Toronto.

In the course of the conversation, references are made to a few sources outside the book, including an interview with Anne Boyer at the Poetry Foundation blog, and a review of Garments Against Women in the New York Times.

“No World But the World” read with permission from Ahsahta Press. All rights reserved.

“Garments Against Women is a book of mostly lyric prose about the conditions that make literature almost impossible. It holds a life story without a life, a lie spread across low-rent apartment complexes, dreamscapes, and information networks, tangled in chronology, landing in a heap of the future impossible. Available forms—like garments and literature—are made of the materials of history, of the hours of women’s and children’s lives, but they are mostly inadequate to the dimension, motion, and irregularity of what they contain. It’s a book about seeking to find the forms in which to think the thoughts necessary to survival, then about seeking to find the forms necessary to survive survival and survival’s requisite thoughts.”

Episode 6 Guests

Domenica Martinello is a writer from Montréal, Québec, and is the author of the poetry chapbook Interzones (words(on)pages, 2015). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in PRISM, The Winnipeg Review, CV2, The Puritan, Lemon Hound, and elsewhere. She is completing an MFA in poetry at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Rudrapriya Rathore is a Toronto writer who is currently in her second year of the Creative Writing MA at U of T. She won the Irving Layton Award for Fiction in 2014 and has written for the Hart House Review, The Puritan, and The Walrus.

Jacqueline Valencia is a Toronto-based writer. She is a senior literary editor at The Rusty Toque, staff writer at Next Projection, and chief editor of These Girls On Film. Her debut poetry collection There Is No Escape Out of Time is out with Insomniac Press.

Kate Sutherland, On the Line, Host and Producer​Kate Sutherland is the author of two books of short fiction, and one collection of poems: Summer Reading (winner of a Saskatchewan Book Award for Best First Book), All In Together Girls, and How to Draw a Rhinoceros. Her work has also appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies including Best Canadian Poetry 2016. She lives in Toronto.

In the course of the conversation, references are made to a few sources outside the book, including an interview with Safiya Sinclair in the Kenyon Review, and an essay by Sinclair on language, exile, and Caliban from Shakespeare’s The Tempest at the ﻿Poetry Foundation﻿.

Poetry from Cannibal by Safiya Sinclair used by permission of the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 2016 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska.

Cannibalby Safiya SinclairUniversity of Nebraska Press, 2016Description from University of Nebraska PressColliding with and confronting The Tempest and postcolonial identity, the poems in Safiya Sinclair’s Cannibal explore Jamaican childhood and history, race relations in America, womanhood, otherness, and exile. She evokes a home no longer accessible and a body at times uninhabitable, often mirrored by a hybrid Eve/Caliban figure. Blooming with intense lyricism and fertile imagery, these full-blooded poems are elegant, mythic, and intricately woven. Here the female body is a dark landscape; the female body is cannibal. Sinclair shocks and delights her readers with her willingness to disorient and provoke, creating a multitextured collage of beautiful and explosive poems.

Episode 5 Guests

Canisia Lubrin was born in St. Lucia. She teaches writing in Toronto at Humber College, and completed her MFA at Guelph-Humber. Her debut collection of poetry, Voodoo Hypothesis, is forthcoming in the Fall of 2017 from Wolsak & Wynn.

Kilby Smith-McGregor has contributed writing across genres to Brick, Conjunctions, and The Kenyon Review, and been anthologized in Best Canadian Essays, and Best Canadian Poetry. Her debut poetry collection, Kids in Triage, was published in 2016 by Wolsak & Wynn.

Phoebe Wang writes and teaches in Toronto, and is the author of two chapbooks, Occasional Emergencies (Odourless Press, 2013) and Hanging Exhibits (The Emergency Response Unit, 2016). Her debut collection of poetry, Admission Requirements, is out this Spring from McClelland & Stewart.

Kate Sutherland, On the Line, Host and Producer​Kate Sutherland is the author of two books of short fiction, and one collection of poems: Summer Reading (winner of a Saskatchewan Book Award for Best First Book), All In Together Girls, and How to Draw a Rhinoceros. Her work has also appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies including Best Canadian Poetry 2016. She lives in Toronto.

In the course of the conversation, a few references are made to sources beyond the book, including Ruffo’s prose biography of of Norval Morrisseau, Man Changing into Thunderbird (Douglas & McIntyre), and an interview with Ruffo inJacket2.

“Ancestors Performing the Ritual of the Shaking Tent, c. 1958-61” read with permission from Harbour Publishing. All rights reserved.

Norval Morrisseau’s revered work has been honoured, copied and recognized throughout the art world and beyond. Less widely known but equally captivating is the artist’s personal life story, which poet and biographer Armand Garnet Ruffo related in his powerful narrative biography, Norval Morrisseau: Man Changing into Thunderbird (Douglas & McIntyre, 2014). Ruffo immersed himself in the life and work of the artist, gaining insight into the struggles and sources of inspiration underlying Morrisseau’s greatest works through research and interviews with the artist himself—a connection further strengthened by their shared Ojibway heritage.

His lengthy study of Morrisseau inspired Ruffo to write poems reflecting on both the works of art and the emotional context in which Morrisseau painted them. The Thunderbird Poems complements the highly evocative and poetic biography, delving into Morrisseau’s creative life through compressed, imagistic language, while untangling the complex and powerful threads of meaning, tradition and emotional power that resonate throughout Morrisseau’s strong lines and vibrant colours.

Significant themes in Morrisseau’s work are mirrored in The Thunderbird Poems: Ojibway legends, Morrisseau’s conflicted religious beliefs, political tensions between white and aboriginal Canadians. Significant moments in Morrisseau’s life are also traced along with the development of his artistic career. Deeply immersed in Morrisseau’s life story, and possessing thorough knowledge of the Ojibway storytelling traditions which grounded so much of the artist’s beliefs and creativity, Ruffo provides fresh poetic interpretations of the most renowned and striking works of one of Canada’s most celebrated painters.

Episode 4 Guests

Signa Daum Shanks is a prairie Metis from Saskatchewan. She grew up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, now lives in Barrie, Ontario, and is on faculty at Osgoode Hall Law School. She has published poetry in the Literary Review of Canada, Canadian Literature, Queen's Quarterly and Canadian Woman Studies.

Sonja Greckol resides in Toronto and is grateful for subways and bike lanes wherever. She has published two books of poetry, Skein of Days (Pedlar Press, 2014) and Gravity Matters (Inanna Press, 2009). She has taught college and university, studied order and disorder in jokes, and done human rights and gender-based research and organizational diversity consulting. Her current poetry probes Al Andalus and the unravelling of La Convivencia.

Liz Howard, like Armand Garnet Ruffo, grew up in Chapleau, Ontario, a small isolated, logging community tucked just inside the Arctic watershed. Her first book, Infinite Citizen of the Shaking Tent, won the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize and was also a finalist for the 2015 Governor General’s Award for Poetry. She now lives in Toronto where she works as a neurocognitive aging research assistant.

Kate Sutherland, On the Line, Host and ProducerKate Sutherland is the author of two books of short fiction, and one collection of poems: Summer Reading (winner of a Saskatchewan Book Award for Best First Book), All In Together Girls, and How to Draw a Rhinoceros. Her work has also appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies including Best Canadian Poetry 2016. She lives in Toronto.

Solmaz Sharif’s astonishing first book, Look, asks us to see the ongoing costs of war as the unbearable losses of human lives and also the insidious abuses against our everyday speech. In this virtuosic array of poems, lists, shards, and sequences, Sharif assembles her family’s and her own fragmented narratives in the aftermath of warfare. Those repercussions echo into the present day, in the grief for those killed, in America’s invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and in the discriminations endured at the checkpoints of daily encounter.

At the same time, these poems point to the ways violence is conducted against our language. Throughout this collection are words and phrases lifted from the Department of DefenseDictionary of Military and Associated Terms; in their seamless inclusion, Sharif exposes the devastating euphemisms deployed to sterilize the language, control its effects, and sway our collective resolve. But Sharif refuses to accept this terminology as given, and instead turns it back on its perpetrators. “Let it matter what we call a thing,” she writes. “Let me look at you.”

Episode 3 Guests

Paula Eisenstein is the author of the novel Flip Turn (Mansfield Press 2012). Her poetry and prose have appeared in literary magazines that include The Puritan, The Rusty Toque, Descant and filling Station. She grew up in London Ontario and presently lives in Toronto.

Lida Nosrati is a literary translator whose translations of poetry, short fiction and drama by contemporary Iranian writers have been published in Words Without Borders, Drunken Boat, TransLit, and Writers' Hub among others. She has been the recipient of fellowships from the Banff Centre for the Arts, Yaddo, Santa Fe Art Institute (as a Witter Bynner Poetry Translation fellow), and Bread Loaf Translators' Conference. She works as a refugee legal worker in Toronto.Sarah Pinder is the author of the poetry collections Cutting Room and Common Place (Coach House Books). Her writing has been included in magazines like Geist, Arc and Poetry is Dead, as well as the anthology She's Shameless. She lives in Toronto.

Kate Sutherland, On the Line, Host and ProducerKate Sutherland is the author of two collections of short stories: Summer Reading (winner of a Saskatchewan Book Award for Best First Book) and All In Together Girls. Her first book of poems, How to Draw a Rhinoceros, is forthcoming from BookThug in Fall 2016. She lives in Toronto.

In the course of the conversation, a few references are made to sources outside the book, including an interview with translator Don Mee Choi, a symposium on reading Kim Hyesoon in translation, and an interview with Kim Hyesoon.

“Morning Greetings,” “Lips Stuck to a Landmine,” and “Marilyn Monroe” read with permission from Action Books.

“Her poems are not ironic. They are direct, deliberately grotesque, theatrical, unsettling, excessive, visceral and somatic. This is feminist surrealism loaded with shifting, playful linguistics that both defile and defy traditional roles for women” —Pam Brown

Episode 2 Guests

Rose Cullis is a playwright, fiction-writer and educator who is currently working on an MFA at the University of Guelph. A film based on her short stories about growing up in Scarborough, and produced and directed by Chandra Siddan, The Year I did Acid will premiere in Dusseldorf, Germany in October at the Open Art Short Film Festival.

Jennifer LoveGrove is the author of the Giller Prize longlisted novel Watch How We Walk, as well as two poetry collections: I Should Never Have Fired the Sentinel and The Dagger Between Her Teeth. Her poetry was shortlisted for the 2015 Lit POP Awards, and she has recent work in The Humber Literary Review, Taddle Creek and forthcoming in Rusty Toque. Her new collection of poetry Beautiful Children with Pet Foxes will be published with BookThug in 2017. She divides her time between downtown Toronto and rural Ontario.

Hoa Nguyen is the author of As Long As Trees Last, Red Juice, and Violet Energy Ingots (all from Wave Books). She teaches poetics at Ryerson University’s Chang School, in Miami University’s MFA program, at the Milton Avery School for Fine Arts at Bard College, and in a long-running, private workshop. Hoa can be found on the web at http://www.hoa-nguyen.com.

Kate Sutherland, On the Line, Host and ProducerKate Sutherland is the author of two collections of short stories: Summer Reading (winner of a Saskatchewan Book Award for Best First Book) and All In Together Girls. Her first book of poems, How to Draw a Rhinoceros, is forthcoming from BookThug in Fall 2016. She lives in Toronto.

]]>Mon, 18 Jul 2016 12:07:01 GMThttp://www.therustytoque.com/on-the-line/on-the-line-interview-with-host-kate-sutherlandThe Rusty Toque is thrilled to present a new podcast series, On the Line: Conversations About Poetry.

Publisher Kathryn Mockler asks On the Line host Kate Sutherland a few questions about this series.Kate Sutherland Host of On the Line

Kathryn Mockler: What is On the Line?Kate Sutherland: On the Line is a podcast devoted to discussion of contemporary poetry. In each episode, I’ll be joined by three guests for an in-depth conversation about a single book of poems.

KM: Why did you decide to start this podcast? KS: I’ve been privy to many discussions in recent years about the myriad ways sexism, racism, and other forms of bias operate in the poetry world. One topic that comes up often is which books get talked about and who does the talking. This podcast offers an opportunity for expansion on both counts—to give more attention to some great books, and to invite more voices into the public poetry conversation. Also, I get enormous pleasure out of talking about books with fellow readers and it will be a joy to share that experience beyond the group of people sitting in the room with me.

KM: What do you hope your listeners take away?KS: I hope that listeners who haven’t yet read the book under discussion will come away wanting to do so. I hope that those who have will enjoy thinking about their responses to it alongside ours. And if they’re not yet part of the public poetry conversation, I hope they’ll consider adding their voices into the mix.

KM: How often will the podcast run?KS: Monthly.

KM: What are some of the books that you will be discussing?KS: The focus of the first episode is Night Sky With Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong. Books that will be discussed in future episodes include Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream by Kim Hyesoon, The Thunderbird Poems by Armand Garnet Ruffo, Where the Sun Shines Best by Austin Clarke, and Look by Solmaz Sharif.

Kate Sutherland is the author of two collections of short stories: Summer Reading (winner of a Saskatchewan Book Award for Best First Book) and All In Together Girls. Her first book of poems, How to Draw a Rhinoceros, is forthcoming from BookThug in Fall 2016. She lives in Toronto.

Description from Copper Canyon Press:Ocean Vuong's first full-length collection aims straight for the perennial "big"—and very human—subjects of romance, family, memory, grief, war, and melancholia. None of these he allows to overwhelm his spirit or his poems, which demonstrate, through breath and cadence and unrepentant enthrallment, that a gentle palm on a chest can calm the fiercest hungers.

“Reading Vuong is like watching a fish move: he manages the varied currents of English with muscled intuition. His poems are by turns graceful and wonderstruck. His lines are both long and short, his pose narrative and lyric, his diction formal and insouciant. From the outside, Vuong has fashioned a poetry of inclusion.” The New Yorker